Post by Dean McCarten on May 6, 2009 14:19:20 GMT
www.musolife.com/a-new-tenor-for-blake.html
I'd guess that hertsnatalie is the same user that is a member of our forum
I wonder if she knows?
Dean
New line-up for Blake
CLASSICAL CROSSOVER ‘BOY BAND’ BLAKE HAS RECRUITED A NEW MEMBER – THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE TWITTER.
The band put out an urgent 'tweet' when tenor Dominic Tighe announced his departure weeks before a national tour. The post attracted interest from around the globe, ranging from pensioners to hopeful (or misinformed) females. Eventually, it was Humphrey Berney - known as 'Barney' - who won the coveted position.
It's not the first time the internet has proved handy for Blake . Members Jules Knight and Ollie Baines got back in contact through Facebook after knowing each other as choristers, and then advertised for the remaining singers - Stephen Bowman and Tighe - through the site.
Dominic - who originally trained as an actor at London's Central School of Speech and Drama - left earlier this year to pursue a career in the theatre.
'When we lost Dominic we reverted to our old habits of using the internet - this time by the use of Twitter,' Baines told Muso.
'We'd only been on Twitter for the best part of three weeks so we were still gathering 'friends' but within 24 hours of putting the post out it got to 15,000 people, and within 48 hours it'd got to 70,000 - it's pretty staggering. So 70,000 people saw the post and from that we had a few hundred replies. Most of these were discountable immediately as they were gibberish or from women!'
The quick replacement has been queried by fans on the band's official online forum, with one member, 'hertsnatalie', writing, 'They found a member very quickly, Please do not jump on me but I think they have looked for member some time ago as tThere [sp] would of had to been auditions and call back auditions'.
But Baines is sanguine about the replacement process, saying: 'We wanted someone who was British - we're a British group, that's important to us - someone who looked right and could sing, and someone popped up who was all those things - and he trained at the Royal Academy and already worked in the industry. It became a very short shortlist.'
Berney had a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London and is a big opera fan, having worked at Glyndebourne and with Jonathan Dove. He's also no stranger to the classical crossover world, singing on Hayley Westenra's album Treasure.
'I signed up to Twitter and said "look no further, I'm your man" and that's where it started,' says Berney on getting his new role. 'I knew of Blake, I'd recently seen them sing at Twickenham and thought: "lucky [deleted], they get to watch the match for free!".
'It's been a complete whirlwind, but a brilliant one,' he concludes. 'I've got a new job and three new friends!'
CLASSICAL CROSSOVER ‘BOY BAND’ BLAKE HAS RECRUITED A NEW MEMBER – THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE TWITTER.
The band put out an urgent 'tweet' when tenor Dominic Tighe announced his departure weeks before a national tour. The post attracted interest from around the globe, ranging from pensioners to hopeful (or misinformed) females. Eventually, it was Humphrey Berney - known as 'Barney' - who won the coveted position.
It's not the first time the internet has proved handy for Blake . Members Jules Knight and Ollie Baines got back in contact through Facebook after knowing each other as choristers, and then advertised for the remaining singers - Stephen Bowman and Tighe - through the site.
Dominic - who originally trained as an actor at London's Central School of Speech and Drama - left earlier this year to pursue a career in the theatre.
'When we lost Dominic we reverted to our old habits of using the internet - this time by the use of Twitter,' Baines told Muso.
'We'd only been on Twitter for the best part of three weeks so we were still gathering 'friends' but within 24 hours of putting the post out it got to 15,000 people, and within 48 hours it'd got to 70,000 - it's pretty staggering. So 70,000 people saw the post and from that we had a few hundred replies. Most of these were discountable immediately as they were gibberish or from women!'
The quick replacement has been queried by fans on the band's official online forum, with one member, 'hertsnatalie', writing, 'They found a member very quickly, Please do not jump on me but I think they have looked for member some time ago as tThere [sp] would of had to been auditions and call back auditions'.
But Baines is sanguine about the replacement process, saying: 'We wanted someone who was British - we're a British group, that's important to us - someone who looked right and could sing, and someone popped up who was all those things - and he trained at the Royal Academy and already worked in the industry. It became a very short shortlist.'
Berney had a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London and is a big opera fan, having worked at Glyndebourne and with Jonathan Dove. He's also no stranger to the classical crossover world, singing on Hayley Westenra's album Treasure.
'I signed up to Twitter and said "look no further, I'm your man" and that's where it started,' says Berney on getting his new role. 'I knew of Blake, I'd recently seen them sing at Twickenham and thought: "lucky [deleted], they get to watch the match for free!".
'It's been a complete whirlwind, but a brilliant one,' he concludes. 'I've got a new job and three new friends!'
I'd guess that hertsnatalie is the same user that is a member of our forum
I wonder if she knows?Dean
